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Stretching magnetism with an electric field in a nitride semiconductor

The significant inversion symmetry breaking specific to wurtzite semiconductors, and the associated spontaneous electrical polarization, lead to outstanding features such as high density of carriers at the GaN/(Al,Ga)N interface—exploited in high-power/high-frequency electronics—and piezoelectric ca...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sztenkiel, D., Foltyn, M., Mazur, G. P., Adhikari, R., Kosiel, K., Gas, K., Zgirski, M., Kruszka, R., Jakiela, R., Li, Tian, Piotrowska, A., Bonanni, A., Sawicki, M., Dietl, T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5095182/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27782126
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13232
Descripción
Sumario:The significant inversion symmetry breaking specific to wurtzite semiconductors, and the associated spontaneous electrical polarization, lead to outstanding features such as high density of carriers at the GaN/(Al,Ga)N interface—exploited in high-power/high-frequency electronics—and piezoelectric capabilities serving for nanodrives, sensors and energy harvesting devices. Here we show that the multifunctionality of nitride semiconductors encompasses also a magnetoelectric effect allowing to control the magnetization by an electric field. We first demonstrate that doping of GaN by Mn results in a semi-insulating material apt to sustain electric fields as high as 5 MV cm(−1). Having such a material we find experimentally that the inverse piezoelectric effect controls the magnitude of the single-ion magnetic anisotropy specific to Mn(3+) ions in GaN. The corresponding changes in the magnetization can be quantitatively described by a theory developed here.